Indian famines, their causes and prevention

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THE LIBRARY
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THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

GIFT OF
HORACE W. CARPENTIER

INDIAN

FAMINES

THEIR CAUSES AND PREVENTION

BY

R0ME5H{jDLfTT, CLE.,

Late of the Indian Civil Service,
and of the Middle Temple, B arris ter-at- Law.

p. S. KING & SON,

ORCHARD HOUSE,
2 & 4, GREAT SMITH STREET, WESTMINSTER.

1901

PRICE THREEPENCE.

gMrwTiM

MC4SS

Indian Famines.

_s j^-t^^-

Ten Famines within Forty Years, i860 to 1900.

THE Reports of the Indian Famine Commissions of 1880 and
1898 tell us a melancholy tale. For excluding severe scarci-
ties, often confined to limited areas, there tiave been ten
wide-spread famines in India within the last forty years ; and in spite
of relief operations, the loss of life has been enormous.

I.— Famine of 1860 in Northern India.

It was a wide-spread famine, and the loss of life was estimated at
200,000, but was probably very much larger.

II. — Famine of 1866 in Orissa.

One-third of the population of Orissa, or about a million people,
died of this famine.

III.— Famine of 1869 in Northern India.

The loss of life was estimated at 1,200,000.

IV. — Famine of 1874 In Bengal.

The Land Tax of Bengal is light, and is permanently settled. The
people are therefore comparatively prosperous and resourceful, and
there was no loss of life from this famine.

V. — Famine of 1877 in Madras.

The Land Tax of Madras is heavy, and is enhanced from time to
time, and the people are poor and resourceless. Five millions of
them perished from this famine.

VI.— Famine of 1878 in Northern India.

The loss of life was estimated at 1,250,000.

VII. — Famine of 1889 in Madras and Orissa.

The loss of life was very severe, but no official figures are available,

VIII.— Famine of 1892 in Madras, Bengal, Burma, and Rajputana.

The loss of life was heavy in Madras, while there was no loss of
life in Bengal.

ivi808658

IX.— Famine of 1897 in Northern India, Bengal, Burma, Madras,
and Bombay.

The number of people on relief works rose to three milhons in
the worst months. Deaths were prevented in Bengal and elsevvhere,
but in the Central Provinces the death rate rose from an average of
thirty-three per milk to sixty-nine per mille during the year.

X. — Famine of 1900 in the Punjab, Rajputana, the Central
Provinces, and Bombay.

The most wide-spread famine ever known in India. The number
of persons relieved rose to six millions in the worst months. In
Bombay the sufferers in the famine camps " died like flies," as was
remarked by Sir A. P. Macdonnell, President of the Famine Com-
mission.

Results of the Census of 190 1.

The results of the three famines within the last ten years, and of
the increasing poverty of the people, are shewn in the census taken in
March, 1901. Tlie population of India has remained stationary dur-
the last ten years. There is a slight increase in Bengal, Madras, and
Northern India, while there is an actual decrease of some millions in
Bombay, the Central Provinces, and the Native States affected by
recent famines. \r\ other words, the population of India to-day is
less by some thirty millions than it would have been if the nominal
increase of one per cent, per annum had taken place during these
ten years.

Resolution on Indian Famines

Passed at the Conference of the General Committee of the National
Liberal Federation at Rugby, 2']th February, 1901.

Mr. Romesh Dutt, who attended as a delegate from Lewisham,
moved the following Resolution :

"That this meeting deplores the succession of severe famines
which have caused the deaths of millions of people in India in recent
years, and considers it necessary to prevent the recurrence of such
severe calamities by moderating the Land Tax, extending irrigation
works, and relieving as far as possible the annual burdensome drain
on the financial resources of India which impoverishes the people of
that country."

In moving this resolution, Mr. Dutt said that although the subjects
which had been discussed by the meeting that afternoon were of the
gravest importance, there was none among them which was of a higher
importance in the interests of the British Empire than that which
formed the subject of his resolution. They had to deplore the deaths
of twenty or thirty thousand Englishmen in the South African War ;
but the loss of lives from the present famine in India could scarcely

be much under a million ; while the loss of lives from the succession
of famines which had occurred in India within the present generation,
or rather within the forty-two years since India had passed under the
direct administration of the Crown, could scarcely be less than fifteen
millions. English Liberals would ask themselves the cause of these
disastrous and frequent famines in a time of profound and uninter-
rupted peace within the natural frontiers of India. India at present
was not a great manufacturing country, nor a great commercial coun-
try, but a great agricultural country; and four-fifths of the vast popu-
lation of India depended upon agriculture. If the Government
demand from the produce of the soil was moderate, and placed within
definite and intelligible limits, as had been done in Bengal, the
people could be prosperous. But the Government demand was being
increased elsewhere at recurring settlements every twenty or thirty
years; the people could save nothing; and every year of drought was
a year of famine. After the great famine of i860, Lord Canning, then
Viceroy of India, had recommended that limits should be placed on
the Government demand, and Lord Lawrence, who succeeded as
Viceroy of India a few years after, had supported this recommenda-
tion; but nevertheless it was rejected by the India Office in London.
The Marquis of Ripon, who was Viceroy of India from 1S80 t;o 1884,
had recommended certain other limitations to the Government demand,
but even his very moderate recommendation had been rejected by the
India Office in London. Thus it happened that the agricultural people
of India, except in Bengal, were in a state of chronic poverty and in-
debtedness, and would continue to be subject to repeated and fatal
famines, till the Land Tax was moderated and strictly limited. His
second recommendation was the extension of irrigation works. On
this point there was no difference of opinion, because irrigation works
— tanks and wells as well as canals — were the only possible means of sav-
ing crops in years of drought. His last recommendation was to decrease
as far as possible the annual drain from India. While taxation had
increased both in England and in India, there was an essential differ-
-ence between the two countries. In England, the proceeds of taxation
were spent in the country, and thus flowed back to the people in one
shape or another to fructify their industries and help their trade. In
India, an amount equal to about one-half of the net revenues was
annually taken away from the country, and thus rendered the people
hopelessly poor. It was a drain unexampled in any country on earth
at the present day; and'^if England herself had to send out one-half
of her annual revenues to be spent annually in Germany or France or
Russia, there would be famines in England before long." Therefore
he proposed that this annual drain should be reduced, as far as
possible, from year to year, by the employment of the people of India
in the administration of their own country, and by the cost of the
Imperial army in India being shared to some extent by England
herself.

Miss Alison Garland rose to second the Resolution and was received

with cheers. She said that she had probably been asked to second
it because she had been to India in 1899-1900, and had visited several
famine centres, and knew what the Indian famine meant. She depicted
in vivid colours the scenes she had witnessed, and concluded her
description by stating that in the midst of these horrors the Govern-
ment had refused to make a Parliamentary grant to India — not because
the British nation were averse to such a grant, not because such a
grant was not needed, but because the Indian Government and the
India Office did not ask for it. The Indian Government did not ask
for it because they knew that a Parliamentary grant would be followed
by an inconvenient Parliamentary enquiry.

The Resolution was put to the vote and carried.

First Remedy: Moderating the Land Tax.

As has been stated before, the Land Tax in Bengal is moderate,,
and \'s> permanently settled. As far back as 1793 the British Govern-
ment fixed the Land Tax of Bengal, and gave its word of promise
never to enhance it afterwards. The result is that the people have a
strong motive for extending cultivation and making improvements,
they are resourceful and able to save for bad years, and there has
been no loss of life from famines for over a hundred years in perma-
nently settled Bengal.

Lord Canning was Viceroy of India from 1856 to 1862, and. Lord
Lawrence from 1864 to 1869. These great rulers had saved India
during the dark days of the Mutiny, and they wished to save India
from the greater danger of recurring famines and starvation. And
both these Viceroys recommended a permane?it settlement of the
Land Tax for all Provinces of India. A Liberal Secretary of State
for India, Sir Charles Wood, and a Conservative Secretary of State
for India, Sir Stafford Northcote, strongly supported this beneficent
recommendation. And if this proposal had been adopted, famines
would have been less frequent and less fatal in India since.

But that generation passed away, and was succeeded by the less
sympathetic administrators of the present generation. And the India
Office in London rejected in 1883 the benevolent proposal made by
Canning and Lawrence, and supported by Wood and Northcote !

The Marquis of Ripon, who was the Viceroy of India from 1880
to 1884, was a sympathetic ruler of the old type, and a worthy suc-
cessor of Canning and Lawrence. He made a fresh proposal to
place certain hmitations on the increase of the Land Tax, He laid
down that in Counties, which had been once surveyed and settled,
there should be no further increase in the Land Tax except on the
equitable ground of increase in prices. But the India Office in Lon-
don rejected even this moderate proposal in 1885.

Thus the proposals to place clear and intelligible limits to the
Land Tax were rejected one after another, and the continuous in-

crease of that Tax paralyses agriculture and impoverishes the people
of India. The uncertainty of the State demand hangs like the sv^jord
of Damocles over the heads of Indian agriculturists, deadens their
energy, and withdraws all motives for improvement. Retired Indian
officials feel this as well as the people of India, and on the 20th
December, 1900, a number of experienced Indian administrators sub-
mitted a Memorial to the Secretary of State for India, once more
suggesting some equitable limitations to the Land Tax in India.
Their suggestions may be briefly described under three heads.

I. Where the Land Tax is paid by landlords, as in Northern
India, it should not exceed one-half the rental.

II. Where the Land Tax is paid by tenants and cultivators
direct, as in Madras and Bombay, it should not exceed one-fifth of
the produce of the field, and it should not be enhanced in the future,
except on the ground of a rise in prices or of irrigation works made
by the Government.

III. The Land Tax should not be revised oftener than once in
thirty years, and local cesses imposed on the land should not exceed
ten per cent, of the Land Tax.

This Memorial was signed by the retired officers named below,
some of whom are among the highest living authorities on questions
of Indian administration :

The Right Hon. Sir Richard Garth, K.C., Late Chief Justice

of Bengal.
Mr. H. J. Reynolds, C.S.I., Late Revenue Secretary of Bengal.
Mr. Romesh C. Dutt, CLE., Late Officiating Commissioner of

Burdwan and Orissa Divisions in Bengal.
Mr. C. J. O'Donnell, Late Commissioner of Bhagalpur and

Rajshahi Divisions in Bengal.
Sir John Jardine, K.C.I. E., Late Judge of Bombay High Court.
Sir William Wedderburn, Bart, Late Acting Chief Secretary of

Bombay.
Mr. A. Rogers, Late Member of Council in Bombay.
Mr. R. K. Puckle, C.S.I., Late Director of Revenue Settlement

in Madras.
Mr. J. H. Garstin, C.S.I., Late Member of Council in Madras.
Mr. J. B. Pennington, Late Collector of Tanjore in Madras.
Mr. J. P. Goodridge, Late Officiating Settlement Commissioner

in the Central Provinces of India.

As stated before, the Memorial was submitted on the 20th December,
1900, and it is hoped that it will meet with a better fate than the
proposal of Lord Canning and Lord Lawrence did in 1883, or the
proposal of Lord Ripon did in 1885.

To limit the Land Tax in the manner proposed in the Memorial
would bring relief to agriculturists, not only in British territory, but
also in the Native States. The Native States of India copy British

administration, and tlie Land Tax in Native States at the present
time is, generally speaking, just as uncertain and oppressive as in
British territory. Any equitable limits placed on the Land Tax in
British territory are likely to be copied in all Native States of India.

Second Remedy: Irrigation Works.

The following passages are quoted from my work on Fai7iines in
India (Kegan Paul, 1900), pp. 81 — 93.

"The total length of railways in India up to the end of 1898-99
was 26,05934^ miles, of which 22,491 miles were open for traffic. The
net loss to the State, i.e. to the people of India, from these railways,
after deducting all their earning and returns, was Rx. 57,734,761 up
to the end of 1898-99. It is apparent from these figures that
railways have been overdone in India — overdone in consideration
of the resources of the country. Nearly all the lines needed for
famine protective purposes have been completed, and it is reason-
able, therefore, to hope that no future lines shall be undertaken by
the State either as protective works or as productive works, and
that the profits of no future lines shall be guaranteed out of the
public revenues. If there is a reasonable chance of profits from new
lines in any part of India, private capital and private enterprise will '
undertake them. If there is no reasonable chance of profits from
fresh lines, to construct them out of Indian revenues, or to guarantee
profits out of the proceeds of taxes, is to sacrifice the interests of
the people of India to the interests of speculators and capitalists.

"What India wants now is an extensive system of irrigation, and
we have already suggested that a crore of rupees, out of the crore and
a-half of the famine grant, may be annually spent on protective irriga-
tion works. ' It appears to us,' write the members of the Famine Com-
mission of 1898, ' that most of the necessary protective railways have
now been constructed, that there is a possibility of others being con-
structed on their merits as productive works or as feeders to the
trunk lines of railway without assistance from the famine grant, and
that under existing circumstances greater protection will be afforded
by the extension of irrigation works.'

" Irrigation works are now classed into three classes :
I. — Productive Works.
II. — Protective Works.
III. — Minor Works.

^''Productive Irrigation Works. — The capital outlay on productive
irrigation works up to the end of 1879-80 was Rx. 20,298,000.
The capital outlay up to the end of 1896-97 (including one purely
navigation work) was Rx. 31,252,948. The capital expenditure
during seventeen years was, therefore, only eleven million tens of
rupees, but, deducting from this sum paid by the Government to
the Madras Irrigation Company, the actual capital outlay during

the seventeen years has been only Rx. 540,000 per annum. The
area irrigated in 1878-79 was 5,171,497 acres. The area irrigated
in 1896-97 was 9,448,692 acres. The net return on the capital
outlay in the year 1896-97 was 6-35 per cent., showing that, finan-
cially, the productive irrigation works have been a success.

"■^ Protective Irrigation Works. — The capital outlay on protective
irrigation works up to the end of 1896-97 was Rx. 2,099,253, out'
of which Rx. 1,698,424 has been charged against the Famine Insur-
ance Grant. The total area irrigated by these works in 1896-97
was 200,733 acres, not including 123,087 acres irrigated by the Swat
River Canal. Interest is not charged against protective irrigation
works, as the cost of construction is met from revenues.

^^Minor Irrigation JVorks. — The irrigation effected by what are
called minor works is of the very greatest importance. Many of them
are old irrigation works constructed by Hindu and Mahomedan
rulers, or more recently by district boards or public-spirited indi-
viduals, and have been taken over by the State. Some of the old
works are of great size, irrigating several hundred thousand acres ;
others are small works, which are numerous in Madras ; and about
one-half the total irrigated area in that province is irrigated from
such works.

" Not only are these minor works exceedingly beneficial to the
country, but their financial returns, too, are also very satisfactory,
because the British Government did not spend any capital on the
construction of most of them. The total expenditure incurred on
these minor works during the seventeen years ending 1896-97 was
over eight crores. The revenue attributable to works of this class
exceeded the expenditure by over six crores. The total area irrigated
by minor works in 1896-97 was 7,442,990.

" Taking all the three classes of works together, the total area irri-
gated in India in 1896-97 is shown below:

Acres.

By Productive Works ... 9,448,692

By Protective Works ... 323,820

By Minor Works ... ... ... ... 7,442,990

Total area irrigated ... ... 17,215,502

" The figures given above, which have been taken from the Report
of the Famine Commission of 1898, show the area of land now under
irrigation and the satisfactory financial results of the irrigation works
hitherto undertaken. But the figures do not represent the entire
financial value of these works. They show the direct proceeds of
water rates collected, either separately or with the land revenue, as in
Madras, but they do not indicate the extent to which the land revenue
itself is made stable by irrigation works ensuring the prosperity
of agriculture. The Famine Commissioners very rightly urge ' that
the value of these works should not be judged too strictly by the

8

financial results, and that due credit should be given to the works,
even if it cannot be reduced to a quantitative form, not only for the
stability of the revenue assessed on the lands dependent on them,
which may be small, but also for their great value in such a country,
in all seasons of drought, to the people of the neighbourhood, as
well as to those whose crops are actually secured.'

" Far above financial considerations should be reckoned the duty of
the State to protect agriculture and to save the lives of ihe people in
a country so dependent on water as India. The painful experience
through which we are passing in the present year must convince the
Government of India of the necessity of storing water in every part
of the country for the saving of crops in years of drought, for the
saving of cattle, and for the saving of human lives. The canal system
may not be practicable on high table-lands and in hilly country, but
embankments and bunds constructed across slopes would convert large
dry areas in the surrounding country. This was very clearly explained
by Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., in his speech in a recent debate in the
House of Commons, and this was also forcibly urged by the Hon.
Rai Bahadur B. K. Bose in his recent speech in the Viceroy's
Council.

" Besides such artificial lakes, it is possible to multiply wells for
irrigation purposes throughout the country. ' Whatever field there
may be,' says the Famine Commission of 1898, for many years to
come for the construction of protective irrigation works of the ordinary
kind, i.e.^ canals or storage works, there are probably more tracts
liable to periodical drought in which the desired protection may be
afforded with greater certainty or at less financial risk by the con-
struction of wells, by means of State advances which would be only
partially recoverable, the irrecoverable portion of the advance being
a final charge against the Famine Insurance Grant. . . . It is
open to consideration whether, when wells have to be sunk through
rock with uncertain results, it might not be worth while for the State
to share part of the cost, in view of the protection afforded, if water
is eventually found. It is also open to consideration whether the
State might not bear the cost of scientific aid in the shape of boring
operations to ascertain whether or not a supply of water will be forth-
coming if the well is sunk.'

" ' As the State in India,' they say, ' is generally in the position of
superior landlord, there are special reasons why the Government
should undertake without expectation of direct return works peculiarly
protective of agriculture, such as irrigation works.'

" The most recent instance in which this mandate has been violated
is the imposition of a compulsory water rate within all wet areas by
an Act passed by the Madras Government in the present year. For
the last forty years or more water rates have been optional; the culti-
vator who chooses to use canal water pays for it, and the cultivator
who does not use it does not pay.

" This method has answered well enough in practice ; the mass of
cultivators voluntarily use canal water for the protection of their crops,
and the financial returns from irrigation works have been satisfactory,
as has been shown before.. But local governments have, in their
anxiety to secure financial profits, needlessly endeavoured from time
to time to make that compulsory which is voluntarily paid without
objection, to make that an irritating tax on the people which the
people have regarded and paid as a fair return for benefits obtained.
As long ago as 1869 the Government of India submitted the
"Northern India Canal and Drainage Bill " to the Secretary of State
for India, and proposed to make the irrigation rate compulsory. The
late Duke of Argyll, then the Secretary of State for India, declined to
accord his sanction to the measure.

" Another proposal made in 1879, ^^ connection with the Bombay
Irrigation Act, that all lands commanded by the water of canals
should be taxed was similarly rejected by the then Secretary of State
for India. And now, in a year of distress and famine in India, the
Government of Madras has thought it fit to pass an Act which, in the
opinion of the late Duke of Argyll, would either throw on the culti-
vators the loss consequent on unsuccessful speculations undertaken
by the Government, or would force them to pay for water for which
they have no use, or would lead to excessive expenditure under the
vicious system of guaranteed profits.

" No reason exists for making the water rate compulsory in Madras,
for productive irrigation works are paying at the rate of 6"35 percent,
on the capital sunk in all India, and at the higher rate of 7 "14 in the
Province of Madras. No object is gained by forcing on the people
the benefits of a system of which they have availed themselves volun-
tarily as a blessing, and which they will detest as a curse when it is
needlessly forced on them. No increase in the total revenue can be
expected, for in Madras lands are already over-assessed, and respon-
sible administrators will find it necessary before long to lighten the
burden in that province and not to add to it. And no endeavours
to make the system of irrigation works really useful to the cultivators
are likely to be made when the canal officers are sure of their returns
in the shape of a compulsory tax over the entire area supposed to be
benefited by those works. The blunder made in Madras is likely to
spread in other parts of India, and instead of a voluntary rate, which
the people are willingly paying everywhere in India, they will find that
irrigation means another and an odious tax on their limited savings."

It is only necessary to add here that if a compulsory rate is imposed
in British territory, the practice is likely to be followed in Native
States also. It has been stated already that the rules of administra-
tion introduced in British Provinces are generally copied in those
States ; and it would be a misfortune if the extension of irrigation
works is accompanied all over India by a compulsory water rate on
all lands supposed to be benefited.

lO

Third Remedy: Reduction of Expenditure and the Annual
Drain from India.

The people of India have no votes, and are not even represented
in the Executive Councils of India. They have no voice in the
matter of taxation or of expenditure. They have no share in the work
of adjusting the finances of India. Taxation exceeds all reasonable
limits in India ; and the proceeds of the taxation are not all spent in
India. A large sum, estimated between twenty and thirty millions in
English money, is annually drained from India to this country. The
disastrous results of this annual drain have been described by many
English writers and administrators throughout the century which has
just closed. A few extracts are given below.

Sir Thomas Munro, one of the great builders of the British
Empire in India, wrote thus in 1824, as Governor of Madras^
after an experience of forty years' work in India :

"They (natives of India) have no share in making laws for them-
selves, little in administering them, except in very subordinate offices;
they can rise to no high station, civil or military ; they are every-
where regarded as an inferior race, and often as vassals or servants
than as the ancient owners and masters of the country. . . . All
the civil and military offices of any importance are now held by
Europeans, whose savings go to their own country."

Sir John Malcolm, an equally eminent builder of the Indian
Empire, and afterwards Governor of Bombay, wrote thus of
the Mahratta admmistrators of Western India with whom he
came in contact :

" If these men exact money at times in an arbitrary manner, all
their expenditure as well as all they receive, is limited to their own
provinces ; but, above all causes which promote prosperity is the in-
variable support given to the village and other native institutions, and
to the employment, far beyond what our system admits, of all classes
of the population."

Mr. Frederick John Shore, of the Bengal Civil Service, wrote
thus in 1837 :

" The halcyon days of India are over ; she has been drained of a
large proportion of the wealth she once possessed, and her energies
have been cramped by a sordid system of misrule, to which the
interests of millions have been sacrificed for the benefit of the few,'*

Mr. Montgomery Martin, Historian of the British Colonies, wrote
thus in 1838 :
"So constant and accumulating a drain even on England would
soon impoverish her; how severe, then, must be its effects on India,

where the wages of a labourer is from twopence to threepence a
day"? — History^ of'c. of pMstem India (1838, Vol. II, p. xii).

Professor H. H. Wilson, Historian of India, wrote thus of the
annual drain from India :

" Its transfer to England is an abstraction of Indian capital for
which no equivalent is given ; it is an exhausting drain upon the
country, the issue of which is replaced by no reflux ; it is an ex-
traction of the life-blood from the veins of national industry which
no subsequent introduction of nourishment is furnished to restore."'
—History of British hidia (Ed. 1858, Vol. VI, p. 671).

Sir George Wingate, sometimes called the Father of the Land
Revenue System of Bombay, wrote in 1859, thus :

" Taxes collected from the population at large, are paid away to
the portion of the population engaged in the service of the Govern-
ment, through whose expenditure they are again returned to the in-
dustrious classes. They occasion a different distribution, but no loss
of national income .... But the case is wholly different when the
taxes are not spent in the country from which they are raised. In
this case they constitute no mere transfer of a portion of the national
income from one set of citizens to another, but an absolute loss and
extinction of the whole account withdrawn from the taxed country.
As regards its effects on national production, the whole amount might
as well be thrown into the sea as transferred to another country, for
no portion of it will return from the latter to the taxed country in any
shape whatever. Such is the nature of the tribute we have so long
exacted from India .... From this explanation, some faint con-
ception may be formed of the cruel crushing effect of the tribute
upon India." — A Few Words on our Fiiiaticial Relatiojis with India
(London, 1859).

In the petition of the East India Company presented to the Parlia-
ment in 1858, and prepared by John Stuart Mill, that
great philosopher, said :

" The Government of a people by itself has a meaning and a
reality; but such a thing as government of one people by another
does not and cannot exist. One people may keep another for its
own use, a place to make money in, a human cattle farm to be worked
for the profit of its own inhabitants."

The same Philosopher said in his work on Representative Govern-
ment :

" It is an inherent condition of human affairs that no intention,
however sincere, of protecting the interests of others, can make it safe
or salutary to tie up their own hands. By their own hands only can
any positive and durable improvement of their circumstances in life
be worked out."

12

John Bright spoke thus in his memorable speech of the 24th June,
1858, on the India Bill :

" There are but two modes of gaining anythino; by our connexion
with India. The one is by plundering the people of India, and the
other by trading with them. I prefer to do it by trading with them ;
but in order that England may become rich by trading with India,
India itself must become rich."

Lord Salisbury, then Secretary of State for India, wrote in his
Minute of the 26th April, 1875, thus :
" So far as it is possible to change the Indian fiscal system, it is
desirable that the cultivator should pay a smaller proportion of the
whole charge. It is not in itself a thrifty policy to draw the mass of
revenue froT3 the rural districts, where capital is scarce, sparing the
towns where it is often redundant and runs to waste in luxury. The
injury is exaggerated in the case of India, where so much of the
revenue is exported without a direct equivalent."

Mr. A. J. Wilson, in an article in the Fortnightly Review of March,
1884, wrote thus :
" In one form or another we draw fully ;^3o,ooo,ooo a year from
that unhappy country, and there the average wages of the natives is
about ;^5 per annum — less rather than more in many parts. Our
Indian tribute, therefore, represents the entire earnings of upwards of
six millions heads of families — say of thirty millions of the people.
It means the abstraction of more than one-tenth of the entire susten-
ance of India every year."

The Rev. J. T. Sunderland, in an article in the New England Maga-
zine for September, 1900, writes thus :
" We denounce ancient Rome for impoverishing Gaul, and Egypt,
and Sicily, and Palestine, and her other conquered provinces, by
drawing away her wealth to enrich herself. We denounce Spain for
robbing the New World in the same way. But England is doing
exactly the same thing in India .... Probe down through the
surface of fine words and legal forms to what lies below, and we have
the same hideous business that Rome and Spain were engaged in so
long, and for which in the end they paid so dear. Called by its
right name, what is this treatment of India by England? It is
national parasitism. It is the stronger nation sucking the blood of
the weaker."

These dozen extracts are enough. A hundred more might be made
from the writings of thoughtful men, who have carefully considered
the effects of this annual economic drain from India. It is clear
that if famines and deaths from starvation are to be prevented in
India, this annual drain, representing the food of thirty millions of
people, should be reduced.

13

This annual drain can be gradually reduced :

(i) By reducing public debt and public expenditure in India.

(2) By England's sharing with India the cost of the army main-^

tained in India largely for Imperial purposes.

(3) By g'^'if^g effect to Queen Victoria's Royal Proclamation of

1858, and admitting the people of India to all offices in
India without distinction of race or creed.

(i) Public Debt and Home Charges.

In 1875 the debt of the Indian Government was ;^48,6oo,ooo,
plus Rx. 69,850,000, making a total of about 1185^ million pounds
sterling, taking ten rupees for a pound. In 1895 the debt rose to
;2^i 16,005,000, ////i" Rx. 104,373,000, making a total of about 220^^
million pounds sterling. In other words, while the public debt was
steadily reduced in England, mainly under Mr. Gladstone's influence,
the public debt was nearly doubled in India within these twenty
years !

The nett " Home charges," or the portion of the annual drain from
India which is effected officially through the India Office, rose from
Rx. 12,501,000 in 1875 to Rx. 15,681,000, exclusive of the charge in-
volved in exchange. The India Office is not interested in effecting
a reduction ; the people of India, with whom it is a question of life
and death, have no voice in the matter !

(2) Cost of the Army.

A vast army is maintained in India, and at the cost of India, as a
reservoir from which England can draw troops for her Imperial wars
in China, or South Africa, and other parts of the world ! In October,
1899, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman spoke thus in the House of
Commons :

" If we are to begin to use India on a large scale as a reservoir
from which to draw troops for our own purposes the argument shifts
materially, and I am afraid the case for some greater consideration
for India will be greatly strengthened. . . . There has always
been a strong opinion among well-informed men acquainted with
India that the military expenditure of India is too great, and that the
force maintained there is larger than is required for Indian purposes."

Justice demands that England should pay a portion of the cost of
the great Indian army maintained in India for Imperial rather than
Indian purposes. This has not yet been done, and famine-stricken
India is being bled for the maintenance of England's world-wide
empire.

14

(s) Queen's Proclamation of 1858 and the Appointment of
Indians to Offices in India.

When the East India Company was abolished and Her Majesty
the late Queen assumed the direct government of the Indian Empire
in 1858, she issued a gracious Proclamation in which she gave the
following pledge to the people of India :

" And it is our further will that, so far as may be, our subjects, of
whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted to offices
in our service, the duties of which they may be qualified by their
education, ability and integrity duly to discharge."

This Proclamation has been treated practically as a dead letter for
■over forty years. All the higher services in India are recruited under
rules which virtually make them a monopoly for Englishmen who
draw their pay from India, send their savings to Europe, and on
retirement draw their pensions from Indian revenues. Three gen-
erations of Indians have been educated in English schools and
colleges ; they have proved their " ability and integrity " in all offices
which they have been permitted to hold ; but they are virtually
excluded to this day from the higher posts in their own country !

A Parliamentary Return was submitted in 1892, showing all
allowances in the form of salaries and pensions not less than a
■thousand rupees for each person per annum. Taking 10 rupees for
the pound the totals are these : —

To Officers on Active Service .
To Officers on Leave in India.
Pensions in India
Amounts paid in England

To Europeans
and Eurasians.

£
.. 9,491,045

495,843 ...

232,888
.. 3^10,778 ..

. 13.930,554 •.

To Natives
of India.

£

• 2,555,431

121,874

598,182

8,676

Total

. 3,284,163

Thus, reckoning all appointments in India of the annual value
•of ;^ioo and upwards, nearly fourteen millions sterling are reserved
for Europeans, and barely over three millions are given to the natives
of India desirous of serving in their own country and under their own
Sovereign ! I do not believe such an exclusion of the people from
higher services was ever known in any civilised country, ancient or
modern.

15

Conclusion.

We have heard often of a "Rfin^vQJent Ppgipnti'sm being suited to
India. Facts and figures show that Benevolent Despotism has not
worked satisfactorily for the people of India during a century and
a-half. It has brought about famh2es_oaj:ie-^veFyJbiuijar.^^^
the latest famines being the most wide-spread and the worst. It has
drained India of an annual tribute estimated to represent the food of
thirty millions of people. It has increased the Land Tax of the
country to a degree which alarms responsible English administrators,
and which has reduced the cultivators to a chronic state of indebted-
ness.v It has permitted the decline of most of the indigenous indus-
tries of India without any adequate endeavour to help the ruined
industrial classes.^-' It has tjirown on-^Ittdia-xhe^Jjurden of^an army
maintained largely for Imperial purposes. It has increased the public"
debt of India by leaps and bOuTrds7even during years of profound
peace within the natural boundaries of India. And it has excluded
the people of India from So per cent, of the salaries and pensions of
^loo a year or more, reserving them for English boys wishing for a
wealthy career among the starved people of India.

These are the legitimate and natural results of a Benevolent
Despotism. Englishmen have not done worse, bat have done better,
than any other nation could have done in India under any form of
absolute rule. The British administrators of India are not incom-
petent men, they are competent and able administrators, but they
have failed because a system of absolute rule musj/ai/ to secure th^
interests of the people. It Is not in human nature for one set of
people to work for the interests of another, and without some sort of
representation the people of India can only be held, in the wor^s
of John Stuart Mjll^ as "a human cattle far nii" . worked for. -the
benefit of England. Even as a farm India has not prospered ; the
" human cattle " "are dying, and England's trade with a famine-
stricken nation is declining !

Let us rise above the idea of a " human cattle farm," and devise
methods which are needed for the prosperity and the protection of
the Indian people. ^We do not propose any new departure ; we do
not approve of any bold experiments ; we suggest only improve-
ments on the lines already laid down. There is a Legislative
Council in every large Province of India, and a few members in this
Council are elected by the people ; what we suggest is that this
system of election be extended, and that each Indian County be rep-
resented by its own elected member in the Councjl. There is also
z.n'Kxecutive Council in Madras as well as in Bombay; what we
suggest is that there should be an Executive Council for each large
Province, and one-half the members should be natives of India.
Lastly, there are the Executive Council of the Viceroy and the
Council of the Secretary of State ; what we suggest is that one-half

i6

the members of these Councils should be natives of India, represent-
ing the different Provinces of India.

We suggest these exceedingly modest reforms because they are
in keeping with the present administrative arrangements; because
they will help British administrators with the experience and local
knowledge possessed by Indians; because they will safeguard the
interests of the people of India which have not been, and cannot
be, safegarded under a purely absolute rule ; because they will
secure a more thorough consideration, from the people's point of
view, of those great questions relating to trade, industries, and
agriculture, which are intimately connected with the well-being of
the people ; because they will make the people of India responsible,
jointly with Englishmen, for the prevention of famines and disasters
and disturbances; because they will associate the people of India with
Englishmen in the control of Indian finance and Indian administra-
tion; because they will make the Government more popular and well-
informed and national ; and because they will strengthen British rule
in India by enlisting in favour of that rule the co-operation of the
people themselves.

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